How to Register for Clinics

Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs (OCP)
Wasserstein Hall, Suite 3085
6 Everett Street
Cambridge, MA 02138

617-495-5202

Selecting Clinics in Helios

Students register for most clinics through Helios during registration preferencing the spring of the year before.  The clinical round is the first round in a series of registration phases.

  • Students register for clinics for the fall, winter and spring terms of the upcoming year.
  • Students may submit up to 6 preferences during the clinical round.
  • For clinics that are offered in more than one semester, each semester counts as a distinct clinical preference.
  • All clinics consist of two parts: the clinic and the clinical seminar. During clinic selection, you are only placing bids on the clinic component. Clinical seminar enrollment is automatic unless otherwise indicated.
  • After results for the clinical round are released, clinical add/drop opens in Helios.

Click here to see screenshots of how to select clinics in Helios.

Students may participate in one clinic at a time. 

Once you have taken a particular clinic, you cannot sign up for it again through Helios. If you would like to return to the clinic in a subsequent semester, you can apply to continue your work through the Advanced Clinical Program.

Clinical Credits

How Do Clinical Credits Work?

Students enrolled in a clinic receive clinical credit for their clinical enrollment and classroom credit for their clinical course component enrollment.

Many clinics have variable credits, which allows students to elect how many credits they would like to enroll for (generally from a range of 3 to 5 clinical credits).

Each clinical credit equals four hours of clinical work per week or 48 hours per semester.

Terms availableClinical CreditsHours of work per weekHours of work per semester
Fall, Spring2 clinical credits8 hours/week96 hours
Fall, Spring3 clinical credits12 hours/week144 hours
Fall, Spring4 clinical credits16 hours/week192 hours
Fall, Spring5 clinical credits20 hours/week240 hours

Over winter term, students receive 2 clinical credits. Students must be in residence working full-time at their placements, from the first day of winter term through the last day of winter term.

Students may take up to 16 clinical credits throughout their time at HLS.

Changing Clinical Credits

If you are enrolled in a clinic that offers variable credits, you may adjust your clinical credits through Helios up until the clinic’s drop deadline.

Deadlines

After a clinics add/drop deadline, students can request a change to their clinical credits by emailing Maggie Bay, up until the following dates:

Fall 2025: October 3, 2025

Spring 2026: February 13, 2026

After the above dates, all clinical credit changes must be requested by your direct clinical supervisor and submitted for review to mbay@law.harvard.edu.

Winter-Spring clinical students may adjust their spring clinical credits up until the above spring clinical credit change deadline.

How to Change Clinical Credits

Under the add/drop section of “Courses,” click on the edit button next to the clinic that you are enrolled in for which you would like to adjust your credits. In the pop-up screen, you will see the option to increase/decrease the credits you are enrolled for on the upper-right hand corner of the screen.

A screenshot of the add/drop section of Helios
A screenshot of the add drop section of Helios, where you can update credits by clicking

Please Note: Once the drop deadline for a clinic has passed, please contact the Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs for more information about adjusting your clinical credits.

Waitlists and Add/Drop Periods

Once clinical preferencing results have been released, add/drop opens for clinics (fall, winter and spring). Students may drop from any clinics they were enrolled in, enroll in any open clinics, and add themselves to the waitlist for any clinic they did not preference during clinical registration. Waitlists continue to process in Helios up until the drop deadline.

Clinic Waitlist Processing

If you receive a clinic waitlist offer and are having problems accepting it, please refer to the “Registration and Add/Drop” section of our Frequently Asked Questions webpage.

Clinic waitlists move significantly.  Waitlists for fall clinics will process over the summer until the drop deadline.  Waitlists for winter and spring clinics will continue to process throughout the fall, until the winter and spring drop deadline hits.

If you’d like to speak with someone about the chances of you getting off a particular clinic waitlist, please contact clinical@law.harvard.edu.

Clinic Add/Drop Deadlines

Fall 2025 Externship Clinic Drop DeadlineAugust 11, 2025
Fall 2025 In-House Drop DeadlineAugust 22, 2025
Winter 2026 Drop DeadlineOctober 24, 2025
Spring 2026 Externship Drop DeadlineDecember 5, 2025
Spring 2026 In-House Drop DeadlineDecember 12, 2025
*Please note: some clinic drop deadlines may be earlier. Please check each clinic’s description in the HLS Course Catalog to see any drop deadlines that may differ.

Clinic Drop Deadlines and Project/Client Assignments

Please note that clinic add/drop deadlines are earlier than non-clinical add/drop deadlines.  Some clinics have even earlier drop deadlines than the general clinical drop deadlines – check the clinic’s description in the HLS Course Catalog to confirm each individual clinic’s drop deadline, or reference our J.D. Clinical Curriculum Chart or LL.M. Clinical Curriculum Chart.

Dropping after the applicable drop deadline will result in an “Withdrawal” (WD) on your academic transcript. You cannot drop a multi-semester (e.g. Fall-Winter) clinical course after the first semester’s (Fall) drop deadline. Clinical work begins the first week of classes.

Please note that for most clinics, students will not know their specific project assignment until after the clinic’s drop deadline. To learn more about the potential clinical projects for a given semester, please contact the clinic directly.

By Application Clinics

A handful of our clinical offerings require an application process for enrollment. Registration for these clinics is not done through Helios. Each clinic has its own application process and application deadline. This information can be found in the clinics’ description in the HLS Course Catalog.

The clinics listed below are not included in the Helios registration preferencing process. Student registration is finalized by the Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs (OCP).

Application Deadlines